Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, Mr. Speaker, my Member’s statement was on a family in the community of Paulatuk being evicted from the housing unit. Is the Minister willing to review this particular case in Paulatuk to advise us on how he will work with other NWT agencies and client services to stop this eviction? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister of Housing, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The termination and eviction process is a fairly long one. It is not one that they just decided to do on the spur of the moment. They usually give the tenants an opportunity to come up with a repayment plan. Sometimes it is all the local housing authorities are looking for, is just a commitment from the tenants to come up with a repayment plan. Eviction is basically the last notice, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

I would just like to remind the Minister that the Housing Association is run out of Inuvik. They fly people into the community once or twice a month to take all the proper forms they have to fill out to get their rental assessment. But, Mr. Speaker, the biggest problem is not having somebody there to contact the people and do these assessments with the client. Why is the NWT Housing Association having to evict people in the middle of winter and not able to work with the family? This is unacceptable, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, Housing doesn’t choose the time of year when people are evicted. It is not something that Housing enjoys doing, but there is a process that has to be followed. Part of the process involves paying your rent or making arrangements to pay your rent, coming up with a payment plan. Usually they are pretty accepting of any tenant that wants to come forward and work out a payment plan and then they will have the opportunity to stay in their unit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, if the family does come forward, will the Minister and his department accept his plan of going forward to stay in the housing unit? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to this point where there is an eviction notice, usually it goes through a rental officer. There is a local board and these tenants could speak to the local board about trying to work out a plan. When it comes to the rental officers, usually it is the last part of the process. When it is an eviction, that is when it is usually a court ordered eviction. But before it gets to that point, there is always an opportunity for them to speak to the board and try to get the board to reverse the process if they come up with a repayment plan. But what they would need first and foremost, Mr. Speaker, is a commitment from the tenant that they are willing to take part in this repayment plan. Thank you.

Can the Minister identify the huge costs of eviction of a family, which would involve emergency travel to another community like Yellowknife -- and emergency housing is already crowded -- shelter and perhaps temporary arrangements for children, compare the cost of providing positive supports for a family? So that,

perhaps, the result is an issue for the Housing Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, this is not a process that any LHO likes to be a part of. It is often the last straw when it comes to this particular process. I know from history, Mr. Speaker, that they are always willing to work with the tenants of the housing authority. At the same time, we need a commitment from the tenant that if there is a ruling, that they will abide by that ruling and work out a repayment plan, then Housing is usually pretty accepting of that.

It is a huge cost, obviously, if they have to put them up in a shelter or move them to shelter, but there is also a very huge cost in the amount of arrears that are with the Housing Corporation every year. We are up to $10 million now in public housing arrears. We are also up to $10 million now in mortgage arrears. Mr. Speaker, this is not a process that any housing authority enjoys, but it is one where steps have to be taken to come up with plans and work with the tenants. All we are asking for is a commitment from the tenants to take part in this process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke today about priorities for the next capital infrastructure budget and the 2011-2012 budget. I know it is a long ways away, but I think it is time we start considering priorities of the government. I suggested that providing cell service in the 25 communities that don’t currently have it should be one of the priorities of this government. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Finance. I would like to ask the Minister where the provision of cell phone service to all communities in the NWT sits in terms of this government’s priorities. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Members have copies of the five-year capital plan and going forward. Cell phone service is not on the list that I am aware of. What was once a luxury is now considered an essential service, but it’s not there.

I will also point out that we have also been told at different tables, look after your costs, control your growth, don’t grow government and don’t go too much into debt in this Legislature. Now we are told 911, cell phone service, we want more houses, roads and bridges and all good things, recognizing that there is a limited amount of resources and a far

greater list of needs than we will ever be able to afford. The debate is what is it going to replace. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for his answer. I can’t argue that we have set a capital plan out. However, I can argue that these plans are not set in stone. I don’t think they should be considered firm and concrete from day one when we first establish these plans. In a four-year period of our election, we have to be able to respond to the various concerns of our constituents, and not just my constituents but across the Territory. I would like to suggest that, certainly, priorities can change. I think they do change. I have seen that already in two years.

I would like to know from the Minister whether or not…I mentioned a number of possible funding scenarios in my statement. There are any number of different ways that we can fund this particular project and one or more of them may not cost us the full cost, maybe not even 25 percent of the cost. Has the government, has the Minister or his Department of Finance ever looked at how provision of cell phone service in these 25 communities might be funded? Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Work was done looking at that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. How? What sort of options did you come forward with? Could you please explain to me what considerations were taken, what options were considered and what the decision was? Thank you.

There are two fundamental approaches. There’s one where cell phone provision is seen as a business opportunity where the private sector will go in because there’s money to be made. The other approach, similar to the Yukon one, is where the government agrees they’re going to come up with a significant amount of money, because they want to have cell phone service across their whole jurisdiction similar to the Yukon which, I might point out, has far less geographic challenges than the Northwest Territories does in terms of distances to cover. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree that the Yukon is not the NWT. We certainly have different geography, but the information I’ve been given from a technical perspective is that really all we need is a cell phone tower in every community. So that’s 25 towers. We certainly don’t need to have towers in between every one of our communities.

My last question for the Minister -- hopefully, he can give me an answer that I will like, I guess -- but

what will it take for this government, this Cabinet, to make cell phone service provision in providing cell phone service in all of our communities a priority? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A little over two years and I’m still trying to give the Member an answer that she likes, depending on the circumstance. The Member is very well aware we have a capital planning process. It’s intensely participated in. There’s huge interest given now coming forward that after the two years of stimulus money, that the capital plan is not going to be as big as it has been over the last two years. So the challenge for us as a Legislature is to look at the priorities on that list and if we want to replace something, what is that? If we are going to collectively decide we want to spend more money than we have already and run a greater debt than we are currently contemplating, those are the kinds of discussions we have to have and it’s about making choices. It’s not just, I would suggest, the government, this Cabinet that’s going to make that decision in isolation. The Member well knows that if Cabinet comes forward and tries to insert something into the capital plan, should they ever be so foolhardy, we’d be dealt with in short shrift by this Legislature. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. It has to do with the Income Support Program and the client with a disability, people who apply under this program. My understanding is there was an issue that was dealt with in Deline and as a result of that, there are other issues that have come forward in terms of the disability aspect of this program. Right now, Mr. Speaker, I understand there’s a family that has some issues that deal with a disability and this family with small children is living in a warehouse behind some sister’s place and is living elsewhere in Deline.

In terms of this issue, I want to ask the Minister, is his department willing to work with the Department of Health, work with the Housing Corporation in terms of how to deal with this family with small children that are living in a warehouse in Deline?